Mayor Bloomberg King of New York NO THIRD TERM!
Your philanthropy is welcome! by Suzannah B. Troy
This site is devoted to voting no to a third term.
NYC is oligarch central. Using youtube as art, street poster art asking "Is Democracy for Sale?", branching out w/ low budget protest- NYC style. In contrast, king Mike made billions despite the economic tsunami and has unlimited resources. My goal is to make you think and feel; that is my job as an artist!

Contractor being sued over its alleged mismanagement of CityTime project wants lawsuit transferred

NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A company that was tasked with monitoring the overhaul of New York City’s timekeeping system has requested that a whistleblower’s lawsuit filed against it over two former employees’ alleged fraud be transferred to a New York federal court.

Defendant SFN Group Inc., formerly known as Spherion Corp., filed its notice of removal to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week.

Plaintiff Vinrod Khurana brought his original complaint on behalf of the State of New York and City of New York in March 2011. The lawsuit, filed under seal, named a group of defendants, including SFN.

The company argues that the lawsuit belongs in federal court because it is a qui tam action, with neither the state or city being a party.

In addition, SFN notes that the case is an action under the New York State False Claims Act for damages allegedly sustained by the city and Khurana.

Specifically, Khurana alleges that SFN billed the City of New York an estimated $48 million in connection with the CityTime project. He also alleges that “any claims for payment that [SFN Group] made to the city between 2004 and 2010.. were false claims subject to treble damages and pre-claim penalties pursuant to the New York State False Claims Act.”

Khurana also seeks two times back-pay from the date of his alleged termination of his employment in 2007 through the conclusion of the CityTime project in 2010, plus special damages including his attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses.

“The total amount of damages sought in the Second Amended Complaint therefore exceeds $75,000,” SFN wrote in its seven-page notice, filed Aug. 20.

Khurana, a San Francisco resident, is a former employee of Spherion.

In July 2004, Spherion hired Khurana, who has more than 20 years of experience as a computer systems analyst, as a consultant/load tester on the CityTime project.

According to court documents, starting in late 2010, New York City’s attempted overhaul of its timekeeping system ground to a halt amid the discovery of “rampant, pervasive” fraud that tainted “nearly every corner” of the project.

Over the next three years, New York City investigators -- and the public -- would come to find out that a small group of individuals had turned the CityTime project into their own personal bank account, creating a network of shell corporations to deceive the city about the development of the software while kicking back tens of millions of dollars into their own pockets.

At the heart of the fraud were two men -- Mark Mazer and Scott Berger -- who, according to court documents, were largely responsible for developing and implementing what has been deemed “one of the worst, if not the worst, financial crimes against the city.”

Mazer and Berger, according to Khurana’s complaints, became involved in the project as the direct result of Spherion, the contractor tasked with monitoring the development of the software.

Spherion treated Mazer and Berger as its employees. According to Khurana’s complaints, they were considered by those on the job site to be the “face” of Spherion.

Khurana worked for Spherion, on the project, until being terminated -- without any explanation, he alleges -- in May 2007.

He contends his termination followed his “many attempts” to warn his superiors about the poor testing results of the CityTime software and that the project could not function.

According to Khurana’s complaints, Spherion fired him immediately after he alleged to his colleagues that Mazer and Berger were engaged in wrongdoing related to the operation of the project.

Khurana, in his second amended complaint filed in New York Supreme Court in July, contends Spherion should be held responsible for its “undeniable and critical role” in the damage caused by the two men.

“By hiring Mazer and Berger, Spherion assumed responsibility for their conduct on the contract -- both by basic tenants of respondeat superior and by the specific obligations set forth in the contract between Spherion and the City of New York Office of Payroll Administration,” he wrote.

“Spherion submitted claims and collected millions of dollars from New York City on behalf of Mark Mazer and Scott Berger alone. Yet, while Mazer and several of his co-conspirators are serving lengthy prison sentences for their abhorrent and unapologetic fraud, Spherion Corp. so far has escaped liability.”

Khurana continued, “Had Spherion exercised proper authority and oversight over its employees, had it put in place any safeguards to monitor for fraud by its own employees, and had it not turned a blind eye when confronted with suspicions of Mazer and Berger’s conduct, the massive fraud perpetrated on the City of New York could have been avoided completely or at least stopped years earlier than it ultimately was.”

From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at jessica@legalnewsline.com.

Oh dear Juan Gonzalez is on vacation so I guess no one's going to report this story?

This is a major story and there's a lot of money I would say easily over 1 billion between CityTime and 911 tech crime alone the tax payers are owed but will anyone with integrity ever pursue getting that money back?

I remember New York Post editors would not let a key reporter report Denault sued SAIC and won. The Village Voice reporter took my exclusive but didn't credit me. Vinod is my facebook friend and he posted this on facebook and also posted a comment giving me the go ahead to run with this. He even alleges one of his managers at Spherion committed suicide but ultimately that the people of New York were robbed yet again with Spherion not having to payback the city and he believes the oath somewhere between 50 and $150 million. Under Bloomberg I was alerted by other whistleblowers with the city was owed money by many contractors subcontractors on CityTime and 911. I know I wasn't the only ones be contacted with this news I'm just glad now the story is out. I'll be interesting to see if The New York Times near dealing using New York Post kill this news too save murdered more stories than a serial killer protecting Mike Bloomberg and Ray Kelly's more than tarnished legacies.

I know from different sources stealing was rampant out-of-control even more so for 911 which went over budget over $1 billion in the lead contractor Hewlett-Packard was delivering late in delivering crap and FYI today the second command center I believe is still not up all these years later and the backup is still one police Plaza and set it for 50 million dollar plus back up unit!!!

That is not news and would be a huge embarrassment for Bloomberg and Ray Kelly the NYPD's role in 911 is egregious and that's understating it considering Ray Kelly appointed chief chuck does but no tech experience but was court fixing crimes like me being Savage the assaulted a doctor Andrew fagelman and the same internal affairs that fix it for him and Ray Kelly fixed it in my case line blaming police reports.

Aug 21 2015 Ray Kelly and head up internal affairs under Ray Kelly their lawyer admitted Front of three apologizes that but the cops and internal affairs off the hook I was treated egregiously so my question is in America can we get justice in court or is it just them taking on our money and putting in their bank accounts as a protects corruption?

Is more newspaper going to pick the story up in New York City? Probably not because the NYPD control press passes in the editors kill stories for their owners that are friends with Mike Bloomberg and then one fixing in favors from Ray Kelly?

In my poem I wrote before he and Amanda socialite mega millionaire city planner, the people's BURDEN, aided and abetted NYU in tearing down St. Ann's from 1847 which survived everything all these years but NYU's need and greed to mega dorm the East Village to death....I wrote at the very end of Buy Town, Stuy Town, affordable housing an oxymoron... about "I love NY but I just can't afford to live here T shirts"

Mike Bloomberg is the Peter Sellers character in "Being There", just above average intelligence and instead of a comedy, it is a horror movie.

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About Me

Passionate letters published in The Financial Times re: Lucien Freud, my art and women's issues, The Wall St. Journal"Betrayal at Ground Zero", The Chief, The New York Times (9),Crains "NYU's Logo should be a dorm with a dollar", The New York Sun, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Metro, AMNY, The Village Voice "Carbon Copy" letter of the week, Newsday, Jerusalem Post, my blog mentioned New York Mag Intelligencer neighborhood watch. Got speed bumps for Anna Silver School & doors for women's bathroom Tompkins. Donated my white blood cells twice to help a little girl fight Non-Hodgkins & man w/Lymphoma. Two hour process & you can only do it 12 x in your life. Too worn out to donate now. Way back Liz Smith mentioned me & my favorite zen quote "Live each moment as if your hair is on fire." which means live in the moment like it is your last aka live life passionately!
I am really proud to say I have run 2 New York City Marathons!!! Also to have done volunteer work with pre-school handicap children at Rusk. NYTimes My YouTube work 1) Giuseppi Logan’s Second Chance 2)Mysterious Mr. Rechnitz

CityTime will be bigger trial than Haggerty Trial where Mike Bloomberg a sitting mayor committed perjury and Team Bloomberg -- Pat Harris, Kevin Sheekey, Allison Jaffin, Fiona Reid all suffered terrible bouts of amnesia. I wish Dennis Vacco has called Steve Rattner Fiona Reid's boss to the stand. NY1 fires camera man/news reporter for filming Rudin Condo Sales office Protest We Need a Hospital! Call and ask NY1 to do the right think and re-hire him! 212-NY1-NEWS (212-691-6397). email newspix@ny1.com See bottom of blog: I moved everything down to bottom of blog.

This Wiki page on me was removed after being attacked by sock puppet accounts exposed by an Wiki Editor. The accounts were suspended but the page came down as well. Interesting. The page is about being censored! All my YouTubes were banned and my YouTube channel removed a month and half before the election after relentless aggravated harassment by YouTube accounts identifying themselves on behalf of Mike Bloomberg. Google wrote me an apology and my account was restored 28 hours later.